Join us as we count down to ALTA41: Performance, Props, and Platforms with the National Translation Award in Poetry and Prose long- and shortlisted titles! We will be featuring the titles in alphabetical order, moving first through the longlisted and then the shortlisted titles, alongside blurbs penned by our judges for the National Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose. This year’s judges for poetry are Kareem James Abu-Zeid, Jennifer Feeley, and Sawako Nakayasu, and this year’s prose judges are Esther Allen, Tess Lewis, and Jeremy Tiang.

For quick reference, you may find the NTA longlists here, and the NTA shortlists here. Today we’re shining the spotlight on August, longlisted for the National Translation Award in Prose:

August
by Romina Paula
translated from the Spanish by Jennifer Croft
(Feminist Press)

An absorbing, bold piece of writing with a fresh, irresistible voice. A young woman returns to her hometown five years after her best friend’s suicide, only to find herself getting dragged back into past entanglements and having to rebuild herself all over again. An intimate study of grief and unfinished business, this novel charts a journey through one person’s mind as she struggles to deal with issues she has spent too long hiding from. Jennifer Croft’s translation doesn’t put a foot wrong as it navigates choppy emotional currents and memories, rendering a devastating account of a soul in crisis.